Books: Mitford's Monarch

Life among the humanoids of outer spaceif such ever come to
lightcould not be more remote from the modern world than the bizarre
and ceremonious existence of Louis XIV. With learning and flair, Nancy
Mitford, the biographer of Voltaire and Madame de Pompadour, employs an
elegant and aphoristic style to match the complexity and splendor of
her subject: the building of Versailles, and its principal inhabitant,
the Sun King, revered as a demigod by his 20 million subjects.